Talking Tuesday Sunday edition: Spurrier previews Texas A&M (AUDIO)

USC’s work schedule this week has moved up to accommodate the Thursday night kickoff against Texas A&M, thus Steve Spurrier’s regular Tuesday news conference was held this afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Here are some of the key comments from Spurrier:

A&M will play a lot of young guys and they have recruited well

Dixon brothers will be starting and he thinks its the first time he’s had brothers starting

Thompson has an opportunity to play well, has prepared well and players have confidence in him

Practices have gone well with two injuries in Matulis and Smith

Expects Davis to be 100 percent by game time and he likes his other running backs

Nice what they’re doing to improve the look of the stadium but he’s more concerned about what goes on inside the stadium

Thompson has played a good bit in his career and has played well

Mitch and Orth remain tied for No. 2 QB on depth chart

Wants to use Cooper a lot and will mix him around but doesn’t want to run him into the ground. He will return punts

Hasn’t yet looked at the 85 foot banner of him now hanging off the west side of the stadium

Feels his team has compared well thru the summer and is ready to compete at a high level

One dividend of keeping staff together is the recruiting class they have assembled thus far for 2015

Credits Eric Hyman for finding the boosters to give the money that has led to the facility upgrades that’s led to the success

He’ll let the governor worry about A&M having yell practice on the state house grounds

The 9th ranked Gamecocks are now 11 point favorites over the 21st ranked Aggies in what will be the first ever meeting between the teams, but not the last as they are each others’ permanent SEC crossover opponent.

The Gamecocks have won 14 straight season opening games and will carry the nation’s longest home winning of 18 games into Thursday night. The Gamecocks are 70-18-4 all time in home openers.

Spurrier is 23-1 in season openers in college with that only loss coming when he was a Duke in a 1989 loss at USC . And he will be going for his 200th SEC victory. Spurrier has won 75% of his SEC games in his career (199-66-1)

This will be the third straight season USC has opened on a Thursday night. The Gamecocks have won their last five Thursday night games.